According to The Hollywood Reporter, the deal is still very much in its early stages, with nothing official/set in stone, but—clearly—a lot of excitement. Coming off an incredibly successful and critically acclaimed run with his adaptation of the Tom Perotta novel, The Leftovers, which dealt with a heaping helping of dark topics, it makes sense that HBO would want to stay in cahoots with Lindelof and his particular point of view for this product during this moment of superhero obsession in pop culture.

If you’re not at all familiar with Aaron Moore and Dave Gibbons’ original work—which came out between 1986 – 1987—Watchmen was a dark allegory, used to reflect contemporary anxieties and deconstruct/parody superheroes as a whole. Set in an alternative universe where superheroes were de rigueur in the 40s and 50s, it was ultimately their rise that brought about a darker, more nefarious world. (So it’s not hard to see what attracted Lindelof, a longtime fan of the comic, to the series.)